


take me back

by deansnuggles



Series: take me back [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 2023 Steve does not end up with Peggy, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Canon Compliant, Endgame Fix-It, Gen, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Referenced Steve/Peggy, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-26 09:54:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19003411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deansnuggles/pseuds/deansnuggles
Summary: "We won, in the end, but the cost was huge. The cost was … more than I could live with. So, I’m not going to. And maybe this time, none of us will have to.”After Steve finishes returning the Stones to their proper times, he jumps to 2012 to make a deal with his past self.





	take me back

_‘I’m Luke Skywalker, I’m here to rescue you,’_ Steve thinks, giddy with nerves, standing outside the door to his temporary quarters at SHIELD. That is, undoubtedly, what Tony would have said if tasked with breaking his younger self out of pseudo-captivity. He steadies himself before proceeding - he needs to do this right, or both their futures will be at risk. There is the potential to save both of them, all of them, which is terrifying and exhilarating all at once. He takes a breath, steadies himself, and places his palm on the security panel. The door slides open without issue - it’s his room, after all.

The Steve Rogers of 2012, fresh out of the ice for less than a week, looks up and freezes in shock for a blink before grabbing his shield and jumping up into a defensive stance. “Who are you? What are you?”

Steve enters the room with his hands up, palms out, unthreatening. He lets the door close behind him but doesn’t continue any further into the room, so as not to get a faceful of his own shield. “I’m not here to harm you, I promise. You can check me for weapons if you’d like, or tie me to a chair. I’m just here to talk. I’ll explain everything, I promise.” 

Prior to breaking into SHIELD (scarily easy when you’re a time traveler with future knowledge and technology, as it turned out) he had booked a hotel room and left behind everything but his time device and the notebook in his pocket. If this was going to work, he couldn’t bring anything else in with him that wasn’t already here.

His younger self is not easily placated. “You have 5 seconds to tell me who you are, and why you look like me. Even if you are armed, I guarantee you I can throw this faster than you can draw.”

“Okay, okay look, I’m just going to sit down, alright? So I can explain, and answer any questions you have.” The room is sparse, just this side of cell-like, but it does have a desk on the wall to his right. Steve moves slowly to the chair, hands still up, and hooks it with an ankle to pull it out and sit. “Okay, good. Now. I know what you’re thinking, and I’m not a... a shapeshifter or a robot or anything like that. I’m you. From the year 2023.”

The younger Steve gives him his best ‘Captain America is Unimpressed’ glare. “Yeah, I may have woken up a week ago, but I’m not an idiot. Try again.”

“Look, I know it’s crazy, but you’ve seen a lot of crazy this week, right? This is just another to add to the list,” Steve says. “Here, ask me something only you would know.”

“How do I know you’re not some kind of mind reader?”

"If someone could be a shapeshifter AND a mind reader, the world would be pretty well fucked, don't you think?"

Younger Steve raises an eyebrow. “Captain America says ‘fuck’?”

Steve smirks back. “Little known fact - it’s one of his favorite words.”

Younger Steve snorts, then lifts his chin in a challenge. “Alright, I’ll humor you, but as soon as you get this wrong, I’m knocking you out and calling Fury.”

“Sure sure, hey if I get this wrong I’ll call Fury myself,” Steve says. “Go on, do your worst.”

“Who was the first person you were sweet on?”

“First person ever?” Steve considers for a moment. It would be a trick question for anyone who wasn’t him, even if they’d done their research, but there’s really only one right answer. “Okay, sure that would be Thomas … Martin? 5th grade. Used to help us with our math homework. He was really smart, guess we’ve always had a thing for the smart ones, huh?” He huffs out a breath, shakes his head at himself. “Didn’t realize till half a dozen years later what it actually was but yeah, he was the first.”

Younger Steve’s eyes have gotten progressively wider as Steve talked. “That’s. That’s impossible. I’ve never told anyone that, I’ve never...” He trails off as he drops down onto the bed in a daze, lowering the shield. 

“So. You believe me now, right?”

Younger Steve nods, still looking stunned. “But how? Why? Why are you here, what’s happened?” He looks up at Steve suddenly. “Did you come to... to warn us about something?”

“In a way, yes, but probably not how you think,” Steve says. “My future, the future I come from, is set. Anything I do here, now, creates a branching reality with it’s own unique future, one that I’m hoping is a lot brighter. I know the challenges we faced, the missteps we took, where we zigged when we should have zagged. I’m prepared this time, and I can help prepare everyone else too. It doesn’t have to end like it did - like it does, in my time.”

“I take it it ends poorly, then?”

“Yes. We won, in the end, but the cost was huge. The cost was … more than I could live with. So, I’m not going to. And maybe this time, none of us will have to.” Although he could easily spin it as ‘going back to set things right’ the truth was more complicated. Of course he wanted to make things better this time, who wouldn’t, but his main motivation was more selfish. The chance to see Tony and Nat again. To save Bucky a few years earlier. To have a team again. To maybe find the family that was almost within his reach when he threw it all away.

Younger Steve looks conflicted. “So, what, there’ll just be two Captain Americas running around now? How are we going to explain that to people? It’s going to be hard enough explaining how I’m back from the dead to begin with, let alone another one of me from the future.”

“No see, here’s the thing. This device”--Steve pulls out the time GPS--“is basically a… time machine wrist watch. You tell it where you want to go, and if you have enough fuel, it takes you there, instantaneously. It’s perfectly safe, painless, I’ve used it over half a dozen times myself, seen it used several times more. Now my journey’s over, so I’m passing it on to you.” 

He hands it to Younger Steve, who takes it gently but warily, eyes flicking between it and Steve. 

“You don’t want to be here,” Steve says. “I’m giving you the opportunity to forget this ever happened. To go back, to Peggy, to your time, help finish the war, build a better future yourself.”

Younger Steve, who after turning it over a few times has apparently decided the device isn’t going to explode in his hand, looks back up in confusion. “Why don’t you just go back yourself?”

Steve smiles sadly. “That’s not my life anymore, I’m not that person any more. Peggy, the Howlies, the 40’s - I miss them, I always will, but I’ve spent most of my adult life here. I’ve seen so much, changed so much; it would be like you going back to high school as a 27 year old war veteran. You may look back on parts of it fondly, but you don’t ever want to relive it. Does that make sense?” 

They lock eyes for a moment, then Younger Steve nods. “Yes, I think it does.”

“So? Are you in?”

Younger Steve stands and walks to the window, looking out on a busy New York street. “This future…” He pauses, considering. “It’s overwhelming. There’s so much, all the time, so much noise, color, movement, information. I don’t know how I’d ever get used to it, though obviously I did at some point,” he says, looking back at Steve. “You did. It’s intriguing, the thought that I could find a place here, find a home here. But I still have a home. And I think - I think I’d like to go back to it.”

Steve let out a breath in relief. “Ok good, great, in that case I have one more thing for you.” He pulls the notebook out and tosses it over. Younger Steve snatches it smoothly and turns it over in his hands. “In there you’ll find details on some things I think you could change for the better, knowing what I do now. Both historical and personal. It’s laid out chronologically, so the more you change the less the later stuff will apply but it’s all there.” He smiles a little. “Hopefully you can do some good in your past, same as I am in mine.”

Younger Steve nods and puts the notebook carefully in his back pocket. “Alright, I’ll do my best. Thank you.”

“Okay, now that that’s settled, let me show you how this works then.” Steve picks up the device from where Younger Steve had set it on the bed next to him, and points out the display and interface. “You set the date here, and it uses this”--he hands over a vial of Pym particles--“for energy. You have enough for a single jump. You can go whenever, wherever you’d like... but I have a feeling I know exactly where you’re gonna go.”

“Yeah…” Younger Steve straps on the GPS, then looks up with a crooked grin, “yeah. I have a date.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I've never written something so dialogue-heavy before, so thanks for sticking it out. I have plans to make this a series, and if I do it will definitely be Steve/Tony, but since this is self contained and 100% gen I figured I'd go ahead and post it.
> 
> (Yes I realize that 2012 Steve is going back to a time when there is another Steve frozen in ice, but I figure if Endgame could ignore that I could too) :-P


End file.
